The Daily Moth 2-10-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Monday, February 10. Hope your weekend was good. Ready for news?
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Thai soldier kills 29 in rampage
On Saturday afternoon, a 32-year-old Thai soldier carried out the country’s worst mass shooting in a shooting rampage that killed at least 29 and injured many more — mostly at a shopping mall in a region called Korat.
Police named Jakrapanth Thomma as the gunman. He was a specialist in long-range sniper fire. Police shot and killed him after an overnight standoff.
The New York Times explained that Thomma was angry about a real estate deal that involved a superior officer and his mother-in-law. He fatally shot both of them and wounded a third at a house, then posted on Facebook a photo of bullets and wrote that “Death is inevitable” and said that those who became rich from taking advantage of people can’t spend the money in hell.
Thomma then went to a military base, fatally shot a third person, and stole a Humvee and various weapons. He drove the Humvee to a Buddhist temple and killed nine people. He then drove towards the shopping mall, called Terminal 21, and fired several shots out of the window before going inside and shooting at shoppers.
It is possible that Thomma had at least six weapons, including two machine guns, and had about 1,000 rounds of ammo. A security video showed him walking on one of the mall’s floors, holding a large rifle. He was in full military uniform.
By evening, most of the people in the mall managed to run away or were moved away by police. Thomma holed himself inside the building. There was some kind of raid at 3 a.m. on Sunday that did not succeed. A time later, there was another shootout that finally stopped the rampage. Online videos showed Thomma’s body lying outside of a cooler in a supermarket next to a body of a police officer and a body of a supermarket employee.
On Sunday evening, there were hundreds of people who went to the mall to honor those who died. There were candles, flowers, and notes left at vigils.
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn said he would grant royal funerals to the 29 people who died.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/world/asia/thailand-shooting.html
https://apnews.com/e3f365c7a6605eecb51f6b3e567f0485
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/02/10/world/asia/10reuters-thailand-shooting.html https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-10/thai-mass-shooting-shopping-mall-soldier
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Dem Debate; NH Primary; Iowa results
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
There was a Democratic debate hosted by ABC on Friday night in New Hampshire. I watched all of it and I will give you highlights.
Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted that he “took a hit” in Iowa and predicted he would lose big in New Hampshire, but said he is confident in his ability to win in the states ahead.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said “we must be united to defeat Trump.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Bernie can’t win the presidency because he is too politically narrow. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg said the same — that Bernie’s politics is “my way or the highway.”
Businessman Andrew Yang said it was his goal as president to give every American $1,000 a month.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she was concerned that 136 million Americans did not fill out a prescription last year — pointing out that those were insured people who didn’t have enough money for healthcare.
Bernie said the U.S. should make sure that every person has healthcare and criticized the healthcare industry for making $100 billion in profit.
Biden said it would cost us so much money for universal healthcare and said he was proud of his contributions that helped to pass the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Buttigieg said he would bring a fresh vision to the presidency — to contrast himself from Biden or Bernie. He said his experience as a deployed solider in Afghanistan helped him to empathize with the impact that can come from decisions in the White House.
Billionaire Tom Steyer said the person who defeats Donald Trump must be able to challenge him on the economy and said Buttigieg can’t handle Trump on the debate floor because of his inexperience.
Warren said she wants to cancel student debt for 43 million people.
Yang warned that a country should not put their former presidents in jail and warned that once a country starts doing that, it is very hard to break that pattern.
Buttigieg said Trump did a terrible thing by trying to turn a father against his son — referring to Joe and Hunter Biden and their work in Ukraine that Trump has criticized.
Klobuchar said she has proven from her political career that she can work with the other party.
Bernie mentioned Hillary Clinton in the debate by saying “Our job is to look forward and not back. I hope that Secretary Clinton and all of us can move in that direction.”
Buttigieg said the airstrike that killed Iranian military leader Qasem Solemani did not make America safer.
Biden said 64 U.S. soldiers in Iraq were wounded with traumatic brain injuries from the Iranian retaliatory airstrikes and criticized Trump for saying they were just “headaches.” There was a news update this morning that the number of injured soldiers is now over 100.
Bernie pointed out that there are other bad people around the world — naming North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and Russian leader Putin — and said if we start killing leaders then it will start a chain reaction of more killings.
Warren said she has visited armed zones in the Middle East as a part of her Congressional duties and said Afghanistan is a corrupt country — pointing out that years and years of military presence did not solve anything.
Steyer said we can’t solve climate change with the military.
Biden said he is an experienced diplomat because he was involved with the Iranian nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord.
Yang said the opioid epidemic is caused by the pharmaceutical industry and that the U.S. government allowed it to happen. He said we need to support those who seek help and rehab.
Warren said we have to take on the gun industry and their influence in politics.
Klobuchar said Trump is what motivates several states to pass bills to criminalize abortion.
Bernie said he won’t appoint a federal judge that is not 100% for abortion rights.
Buttigieg defended the increase in marijuana convictions of black people in South Bend during his mayoral term by saying it was a part of a wider strategy to stop gang violence. Warren said that Buttigieg did not own up to the fact that our criminal justice system is affected by race.
Yang said $1,000 a month to every American would help communities of color and curb childhood poverty.
Warren said she wants universal pre-K for children who are 3 or 4 years old.
Buttigieg said he won’t require people to agree with him like Trump does.
Klobuchar said she will be a president that “knows you” and will fight for you.
Those are the highlights. We can feel that the tension between the Democratic candidates are increasing, especially as time is running out before major primaries come.
The Iowa Democratic Party said Pete Buttigieg won the majority of national convention delegates in Iowa that were awarded during the caucuses last week. Buttigieg has 14, while Bernie has 12. Warren received eight delegates while Biden received six. There is still controversy over the final numbers of the canvas due to multiple errors in several precincts’ tallies and confusion on a new caucus app.
We’ll see who wins New Hampshire tomorrow. Many expect Bernie to come out in the lead as he is from neighboring Vermont and defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 with 60% of the popular vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93macp94Vr8
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President Trump fires two impeachment witnesses
On Friday, President Trump, two days after his acquittal, fired two staff in his administration who testified during the House impeachment inquiry.
First, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was a national security official at the White House, was fired and escorted out of the White House.
He testified in November that Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president on July 25 was “improper.”
Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who was a NSC attorney, was also fired.
Vindman has a Purple Heart award after he was wounded in Iraq from an IED attack.
Trump said on Saturday morning that he was “insubordinate,” a “leaker,” and did not accurately report the details of his phone call.
The second person to be fired was Gordon Sondland, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. He is an international hotel businessman and donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017.
Sondland testified in November that Trump directed him to work with Rudy Giuliani and that Giuliani sought a quid pro quo of giving U.S. military aid to Ukraine in exchange for a promise of an investigation Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Democrats have called the firings a “Friday night massacre” and said it was retaliation against government officials who were forced to testify due to a subpoena.
In separate but related news, Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department has a process in place where Rudy Giuliani can submit information about the Bidens in Ukraine.
At least three Republican senators said they would look further into potential conflicts of interest with the Bidens in Ukraine.
Joe’s son Hunter was on a board of an Ukrainian energy company called Burisma and earned about $50,000 a month in 2014 while Joe was Vice-President. So far there is no evidence of wrongdoing, but top Republicans and the Trump administration are looking closely in the business dealings.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/07/politics/alex-vindman-donald-trump-impeachment/index.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/482108-trump-ousts-eu-ambassador-sondland
https://www.axios.com/bill-barr-justice-department-ukraine-giuliani-bidens-275f0649-925e-4d73-a117-4c588a2c573c.html
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U.S. indicts four Chinese military hackers for Equifax breach
The U.S. has indicted four members of China’s military and alleged they hacked Equifax in 2017 and stole personal information of 145 million Americans.
The indictment alleges that the four hackers worked with each other to break into Equifax computers in Georgia over three months.
Attorney General Bill Barr said an unit of the Chinese military organized this heist of nearly half of all Americans and that it was “state-sponsored computer… theft.”
The data that was stolen included Americans’ names, birth dates, social security numbers, and credit card numbers.
The hack caused chaos for Equifax. They agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to help those who were affected and provide free credit monitoring. However, not all customers are happy with Equifax.
It is unlikely that the four Chinese suspects will be extradited to the U.S.
This is not the first time that the U.S. has charged members of the Chinese military with data theft. They were accused of hacking 500 million Marriott customers.
https://www.axios.com/equifax-breach-china-indictments-2fcebd40-7144-4955-97b1-f2aba4cf3ea7.html
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-military-personnel-charged-computer-fraud-economic-espionage-and-wire-fraud-hacking https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/17/equifax-data-breach-settlement-2019-deadline-claim-free-credit-monitoring/4490366002/
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Michigan School for the Deaf announces new principal
The Michigan School for the Deaf announced on Sunday that they have hired a teacher, Rex Vernon, to be the new principal effective February 23. There was an internal announcement on Friday, and now it’s out in the public.
Vernon is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and is proficient in ASL. His selection is the cumulation of a public process that started when several students, parents, staff, and others from the MSD community protested in front of the school on June 13 over concerns of a lack of transparency on the principal selection process at the time and what they perceived as an oppressive environment.
The former MSD principal, Natalie Grupido, who is Deaf, left her position in April 2019. There was an announcement for a vacant principal position, but several students and parents felt like they were shut out of the process, which is partly what sparked the protest.
Two student leaders told “The Daily Moth” last year that they wanted Rex Vernon, who was one of the applicants, to be the principal.
After the protest, there were several public town halls and meetings that involved top education officials. More recently, there was an “open” interview process in which members of the MSD community could watch interviews and provide feedback and submit their preferred candidate.
Several staff from Gallaudet University’s Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center visited MSD to give workshops, offer advice to school leaders, and also became involved with the interview process.
I was in touch with several MSD community members for their thoughts on the hiring of Rex Vernon. One person said he is a good choice, understands MSD, and Deaf people. The person said based on Vernon’s responses in the interview process, he knows what issues are going on at MSD.
Another person said they are happy because Vernon has over 10 years of experience with teaching at MSD and is someone who you can trust.
Two MSD community members said they wish there were more candidates for the position — pointing out that only two were interviewed. They said they are happy with the choice, but are bummed to lose a good teacher.
The school is in Flint, which is about an hour’s drive north of Detroit. People on social media seemed to give very positive reactions and comments on the announcement of Vernon as principal.
https://www.dailymoth.com/blog/protests-at-michigan-school-for-the-deaf
https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2019/04/michigan-school-for-the-deaf-principal-resigns.html
https://www.michiganschoolforthedeaf.org/o/michigan-school-for-the-deaf/staff
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!